I was amazed! I haven't read a word by this whore since he sold his soul before the war began. But there is great ammunition and real eloquence, as well as groveling, in this piece.

I do not forgive him. But I my hate has turned to pity. He has a lot to make up for. His voice in opposition COULD have stopped the war buildup in its tracks. Instead, like Colin Powell, he prostituted himself in exchange for what he believed would be a valuable IOU from the neocon cabal.

(Emphasis added)

May 13, 2004, 12:46AM

My mistake: Bush isn't above politicsBy THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

...My mistake was thinking that the Bush team believed it, too. I thought the administration would have to do the right things in Iraq -- from prewar planning and putting in enough troops to dismissing the secretary of defense for incompetence -- because surely this was the most important thing for the president and the country. But I was wrong. ]There is something even more important to the Bush crowd than getting Iraq right, and that's getting re-elected and staying loyal to the conservative base to do so. It has always been more important for the Bush folks to defeat liberals at home than Baathists abroad. That's why they spent more time studying U.S. polls than Iraqi history. That is why, I'll bet, Karl Rove has had more sway over this war than Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Bill Burns. Burns knew only what would play in the Middle East. Rove knew what would play in the Middle West.

...

Why, in the face of rampant looting in the war's aftermath, which dug us into such a deep and costly hole, wouldn't Donald Rumsfeld put more troops into Iraq? Politics. First of all, Rummy wanted to crush once and for all the Powell doctrine, which says you fight a war like this only with overwhelming force. I know this is hard to believe, but the Pentagon crew hated Colin Powell, and wanted to see him humiliated 10 times more than Saddam Hussein....

Why, in the face of the Abu Ghraib travesty, wouldn't the administration make some uniquely American gesture? Because these folks have no clue how to export hope. They would never think of saying, "Let's close this prison immediately and reopen it in a month as the Abu Ghraib Technical College for Computer Training -- with all the equipment donated by Dell, HP and Microsoft." Why didn't the administration ever use 9/11 as a spur to launch a Manhattan project for energy independence and conservation, so we could break out of our addiction to crude oil, slowly disengage from this region and speak truth to fundamentalist regimes, such as Saudi Arabia? ...Because that might have required a gas tax or a confrontation with the administration's oil moneymen. Why did the administration always, rightly, bash Yasser Arafat, but never lift a finger or utter a word to stop Ariel Sharon's massive building of illegal settlements in the West Bank? Because while that might have earned America credibility in the Middle East, it might have cost the Bush campaign Jewish votes in Florida.

And, of course, why did the president praise Rumsfeld rather than fire him? Because Karl Rove says to hold the conservative base, you must always appear to be strong, decisive and loyal. It is more important that the president appear to be true to his team than that America appear to be true to its principles. (Here's the new Rummy Defense: "I am accountable. But the little guys were responsible. I was just giving orders.")

The conservatives out there, especially the Goldwater conservatives (who sound almost rational these days) have been the most betrayed by Bush's imperial pResidency and profligate spending.

Expect to see a lot more of this leading up to the election. Bush is a radical reactionary who has abandoned all conservative principles except the ones dicated by the religious wack jobs. He will pay for this, especially in terms of mainstream conservatives who will simply stay home in November.

of *'s climb to power. True conservatives are isolationists at heart. They don't want to get into messy international conflicts and especially not nation-building. Hell, they barely tolerate having diplomats abroad, much less international aid of any sort.

I knew the GOP we all know and love had flipped out when the regular cons jumped on board the war wagon.

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